CrossFire (video game)

Last updated

CrossFire
CrossFire (video game) logo.png
Developer(s) Smilegate Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Series CrossFire
Engine Lithtech Jupiter EX
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release
  • KOR: May 3, 2007
  • CHN: April 28, 2008
  • NA: January 30, 2009
  • INA: November 7, 2009
  • EU: August 31, 2011
  • PHL: October 17, 2009
Genre(s) First-person shooter,
tactical shooter
Mode(s) Multiplayer

CrossFire is an online tactical first-person shooter game developed by Smilegate Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. It was first released in South Korea on May 3, 2007.

Contents

Due to its popularity in Asia, especially China and South Korea, it has become one of the world's most-played video games by player count, [1] with a lifetime total of 1 billion users in 80 countries worldwide. [2] It was the world's top-grossing online game as of 2014, [3] and went on to become one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, [4] having grossed $12 billion in lifetime revenue as of 2018.

The game has spawned a media franchise. A film adaptation of the game was announced in October 2015. [5] A Chinese television drama series based on the game (named Cross Fire/穿越火线(网络剧) premiered in July 2020, starring Luhan and Leo Wu. It became a commercial success with more than 1.7 billion views in China as of October 2020.

Gameplay

A mission success screen on a team deathmatch mode, the player holding an M16 CrossFire screenshot.jpg
A mission success screen on a team deathmatch mode, the player holding an M16

CrossFire is a free-to-play first-person shooter that features two mercenary corporations named the "Black List" and "Global Risk," fighting each other in an epic global conflict. Players assume the role of either a Black List or Global Risk mercenary, joining an online team that must work together to complete objective-based scenarios. Except for the Mutation and Wave modes, each mode can support a maximum of 16 players, each divided into an 8-man team.

Players progress and eventually be promoted through various military ranks, beginning at trainee, with the highest being Marshall. Players can also customize their character's equipment and appearance through in-game items.

CrossFire has a free currency which is called "Game Points" (GP), which is earned through playing and completing matches, buying premium items that grant bonus GP, or fulfilling certain missions. Premium and special items like modified weapons can only be bought using monetary currencies. The content tends to vary from version to version.

Modes

CrossFire features several game modes, each with unique maps and rules.

Team Deathmatch
A standard mode where teams fight against each other to win. There are 2 ways to win, either reach the required kills, or have the highest kill before the time runs out.
Search and Destroy
Another standard mode where the attacking team (Black List) needs to plant a bomb on one of the two sites, while the defending team (Global Risk) needs to defend their sites from planting the bombs. Unlike TDM, there's no respawn and need to wait for the round to finish until another round before they respawn. Round wins if BL has planted the bomb and defend the site from defusing the bomb or they completely eliminate the defending team, and GR if they managed to defuse the bomb before it explodes, eliminate all of the enemies, or survive without planting the bomb.
Free for All
Another standard mode, but unlike TDM and S&D, there are no teams (perhaps the name of the mode). Player need to kill other players, but quickly respawns after they die in a random location. A player wins via required kills or having the most kills within the limited time.
Mutation Mode
A mode where 2 teams battle against zombies, and vice versa. Soldiers can use any weapon they have, while zombies have special abilities at the cost of health reduction. Supplies drop in random spots for the survivors to pick up, ranging from pistols to grenades. Survivors win if they eliminate all zombies or survive from getting infected, and zombies win if they infect all soldiers. There are 4 types of mutation modes and 2 expansions currently in the game.
Wave Mode
5v5 or 4v4 team based mode. Both teams must destroy the opposition's defense towers in order to reach the base, which has two "Last defense towers" guarding it, and players must destroy those two towers to start damaging the base (clearance of all side towers is not needed). This is the first mode where the player can pick one of eleven classes before joining the room. Each class is different and has its own skills. This mode also introduces NPCs, airstrikes, mortar bombs, energy transmitters and Class Upgrade Systems.
King Mode
No teams. Players compete in a series of mini-games each round, and the players with the highest score gets selected as a commander each round. The game continues until a player reaches a certain score and fight to be crowned the King.
Sheep Mode
No teams. Players compete to get the most points in the end by picking up sheep, which generate points every so often. Once someone has gotten to a point limit set before the game, the golden sheep is spawned, and everyone must fight to see who will get it.
Big Head
Team death match but with a twist, as the player kills they level up, increasing their head size. The maximum is five. A bar will fill up for each team and when it is full, that team will enter "Big Head" mode, where the player is able to instant kill anyone with a melee attack.

Weapons

CrossFire weapons are based on real-life models, with each weapon belonging to a category. Categories include machine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles. Each category is functionally similar to their real world counterparts (E.g. Machine guns are heavy, powerful, lay down heavy fire and have long reload times, Submachine guns are lighter and fire faster but deal less damage, Shotguns are effective in close range but ineffective at long distance.) Weapons often have many variations, including different skins which give them different attributes. In addition, the re-skinned versions are often rarer. There are also some weapons which are different from other weapons like the VIP weapons, which have better functions like faster reload, among others. Certain modes have mode-exclusive weapons.

Characters

Characters are the avatar of players and are what they will look like while playing in the game. A note is that while all characters are visually unique from each other, they are all functionally the same with no real advantages or disadvantages from each other in terms of stats, apart from a few limited-edition characters who are, for example; able to see better through smoke or reduce the visual incapacitating effects of flash bang grenades.

The characters featured in CrossFire are a combination of both real and fictional Special Forces groups. The real groups featured are: The Russian OMON, the LAPD SWAT, the British SAS and SBS, the Brazilian BOPE, the German GSG 9, the Korean 707th Special Mission Group, the United Nations Special Forces, and the American Navy SEALs. Each character also has both a Black List and Global Risk variant. Some characters are bought with GP, while some are bought with premium currency. There are special characters found in some modes like the knight.

There are also mutant characters for the Mutation/Hero modes, which unlike regular game characters, each have unique abilities.

Regional availability

RegionPublisherRelease dateClosure dateStatusNotes
South KoreaSmilegate (previously Pmang)May 3, 2007 (Pmang's first launch)
December 12, 2013 (Smilegate's relaunch)		July 11, 2012 (previous publisher)
March 3, 2020 [6] (relaunch)		Closed—
JapanPlaygra (previously Arario)February 23, 2008March 31, 2018Closed—
Vietnam VTC Online [7] (previously VTC Game)March 18, 2008—Active—
China Tencent April 28, 2008—Active—
West [8] Smilegate West (previously G4Box)January 30, 2009 (North America)—ActiveMerger of the North America, Europe and Latin America servers
Philippines Smilegate Megaport (previously Gameclub)October 17, 2009-Active—
Indonesia Lyto December 8, 2009December 21, 2020Closed-
Russia Mail.Ru June 2, 2010-Active-
TaiwanMacrowell OMGMarch 24, 2011March 23, 2014Closed-
EuropeSmilegate West (previously SG Interactive)August 31, 2011November 7, 2018 [8] Merged into the West server-
BrazilSmilegate WestNovember 29, 2011-Active-
South East AsiaGamboozSeptember 12, 2013March 17, 2015 [9] Closed-
Pharaoh (Egypt, Europe, and Southeast Asia)Pharaoh Gaming Inc.February 22, 2017-Active-
Latin AmericaSmilegate WestJanuary 28, 2014March 18, 2020Merged into the West server-
IranAriogamesMarch 16, 2019May 7, 2019ClosedClosed due to the US sanctions imposed on Iran

Commercial performance

CrossFire is the most played video game worldwide, with 6 million concurrent users and 1 billion registered players in February 2020, according to developer Smilegate, [10] with the majority of players in Asia, especially China and South Korea. [11] The game had 660 million players worldwide by 2018, [12] and has reached a lifetime total of 1 billion users in 80 countries as of 2020. [2]

In 2013, the game was one of the three most popular video games in China, with a revenue of almost $1 billion. [13] It was the world's top-grossing game of 2014 at ₩1.5 trillion ($1.3 billion). [3] By 2015, CrossFire had grossed $6.8 billion, [14] making it one of the top five highest-grossing video games of all time, along with Space Invaders , Pac-Man , Street Fighter II and World of Warcraft . [4] CrossFire grossed $1.1 billion in 2016 and $1.4 billion in 2017, making it one of the three top-grossing PC games for both years, along with League of Legends and Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO). [15] [16] In 2018, CrossFire grossed $1.3 billion, making it one of the year's five top-grossing video games, along with Fortnite , DFO, League of Legends and Pokémon Go . [17] It grossed $1.4 billion in 2019, [18] bringing its lifetime revenue to $12 billionas of 2019.

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References

  1. ↑ "Smilegate to close Berlin office just over a year after it opened". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on November 10, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Kroll, Justin (February 13, 2020). "'Crossfire' Movie Adaptation Lands at Sony (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety . Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  3. 1 2 Lee Ji-yoon (May 20, 2015). "[Herald Interview] The woman behind success of 'Crossfire'". The Korea Herald . Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "World of Warcraft Leads Industry With Nearly $10 Billion In Revenue". Game Revolution . CraveOnline. January 26, 2017. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  5. ↑ Kil, Sonia (October 14, 2015). "'Fast & Furious' Producer Neal Moritz to Make Movie of Korean Hit Game 'Crossfire'". variety.com . Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  6. ↑ "[안내] 크로스파이어 서비스 종료 및 환불 안내". crossfire.co.kr. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  7. ↑ "VTC Online chính thức ký kết hợp đồng phát hành sản phẩm Đột Kích tại Việt Nam" . Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Together CF EU and CF NA will make ... CrossFire West!". crossfire.z8games.com. Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Smilegate shuts down CrossFire SEA". gamerage.com. Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  10. ↑ Kroll, Justin (February 13, 2020). "'Crossfire' Movie Adaptation Lands at Sony (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Smilegate to close Berlin office just over a year after it opened". GamesIndustry.biz . Archived from the original on November 10, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Smilegate Entertainment announces details for the CFS 2018 Grand Finals". Business Wire . September 7, 2018. Archived from the original on January 11, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  13. ↑ Davis, Kurt (December 9, 2014). "Why the South Korean game market looks almost nothing like it did last year". Tech in Asia. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  14. ↑ "The 11 top-grossing video games of all time". Business Insider . August 15, 2015. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Market Brief — Year in Review 2016". SuperData Research. Archived from the original on January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  16. ↑ "2017 YEAR IN REVIEW: DIGITAL GAMES AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA" (PDF). SuperData Research. January 25, 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 11, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  17. ↑ "Market Brief – 2018 Digital Games & Interactive Entertainment Industry Year In Review" (PDF). SuperData Research . Archived from the original on January 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  18. ↑ "2019 Year In Review: Digital Games and Interactive Media" (PDF). SuperData Research . Nielsen Media Research. January 2, 2020. Archived from the original on January 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
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